Thomson

It’s a heck of a way to run a pre-election campaign. On the eve of an expected election, politicians usually spend their time playing up good news, downplaying the bad, shaking hands and kissing babies.

Photograph by: Greg Southam
, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTON - The three decades of work experience Les McKenna has as an automotive and heavy-equipment mechanic means he was half finished his business administration degree at NAIT before he even started class.

McKenna is one of 22 students who began NAIT’s new Trades to Degrees initiative in September, which accepts certified tradespeople straight into the third year of NAIT’s four-year bachelor of business administration program.

Alberta needs tradespeople skilled as managers and entrepreneurs, and the Trades to Degrees program is one of the only such programs in North America, NAIT officials announced at a news conference Wednesday morning that included Premier Alison Redford.

The program is great news for McKenna, 47, who expects to earn his degree attending classes part-time over the next three or four years while he continues working as associate chairman of NAIT’s heavy equipment programs.

“I’ve always been trying to expand my education,” said McKenna, who began his career 29 years ago as an automotive mechanic, became a heavy-equipment technician 19 years ago, then took an instructor job at NAIT.

“It’s going to allow me to move into the future in management positions, in leadership roles ... We have such a high retirement rate coming in our field. It’s the leadership in the field — the managers, the leaders, the shop foremen — who are retiring. So this bachelor of business administration is going to help us, the apprentices, the journeymen to move on and fill the need that we have in Alberta right now.”

NAIT’s Trades to Degrees program recognizes the work and education certified tradespeople have already invested in their careers, said NAIT president and CEO Glenn Feltham. NAIT currently offers the head start toward the business administration degree through its JR Shaw School of Business, but NAIT will expand the program to include other degrees as well as distance-learning options, Feltham said.

The program’s flexibility will attract tradespeople to Alberta and encourage more young people to enter trades jobs because they know they can still pursue their education, Feltham added.

“If you’re talking to a 17-year-old in high school and asking what that person would like to do, and they say, ‘I’d like to take a business degree, but you know I really love to use my hands,’ then perhaps the best route for them is to go take a trade and then enter into the third year of the business program. Can you imagine how powerful that business degree is going to be with that hands-on experience the person learned from a trade, and how relevant that will be back to the Alberta economy? That’s exactly the nature of skilled workforce we need in this province,” Feltham said.

Student Boni Ehman is a parts technician and instructor at NAIT in the parts and materials technician program.

“It’s something that I’ve always wanted and the opportunity was too good to be passed up,” Ehman said of the chance to earn her business administration degree.

NAIT’s Trades to Degrees program launch came a day after the Canadian Federation of Independent Business announced almost 55,000 private-sector jobs are unfilled in Alberta. Business leaders have said Canada’s skilled labour shortfall is growing, particularly in Alberta, forcing companies to slow their expansion plans.

The new program at NAIT will make it possible for skilled trades professionals to continue with post-secondary studies and build better careers, said Alberta Enterprise and Advanced Education Minister Stephen Khan. It will strengthen Alberta’s workforce and economy, he said.

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